Christian parents say daughter removed from their care after refusing to affirm gender identity
Montana's Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said officials followed state policy in a case concerning Christian parents who claim they lost custody of their daughter after they refused to allow her to undergo experimental trans medicalization.
The parents, Todd and Krista Kolstad, said they opposed allowing doctors to take their 14-year-old daughter down such a path, in part, because of their "values, morals, and ... religious beliefs." The state of Montana's Child and Family Services took the teen into their care last month.
On Tuesday, Gianforte told The National Desk that he had asked Lieutenant Gov. Kirsten Juras, who's also an attorney and a conservative mother, to review the details of the case. The Republican governor also referenced his signing of Senate Bill 99 in April 2023, which prohibits body-altering surgeries for minors suffering from gender dysphoria and prevents these procedures from being funded with taxpayer dollars.
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"Consulting with the director of DPHHS [Department of Public Health and Human Services] and personally examining the case documents, Lieutenant Governor Juras has concluded that DPHHS and the court have followed state policy and law in their handling of this tragic case," Gianforte said.
According to the girl's stepmother, the teenager, whom she identified by the pseudonym "Jennifer" to protect her identity, has always suffered from mental health issues and a desire for attention, TND reported.
According to Reduxx, Jennifer expressed a desire to end her life in August 2023 while at school. The teenager also told Child and Family Services that she had consumed toilet bowl cleaner and painkillers in a suicide attempt; however, the emergency room reportedly did not find any toxic substances in her body.
While at the hospital, the staff reportedly called the teenage girl "Leo" and identified her as male despite the Kolstads' request that the staff call their daughter by her birth name.
"We were very clear to the emergency room staff as well as [CFS] that this goes against our values, morals, and our religious beliefs," Jennifer's stepmother told Reduxx. "They told me to call their lawyer if I have an issue, as they will do what the patient tells them."
The teenager's stepmother claimed that the hospital placed Jennifer on suicide watch and had an aide sitting outside her door. According to Krista, she overheard the aide talking to Jennifer one day about identifying as non-binary and undergoing surgery. Another aide assigned to Jennifer allegedly scolded the stepmother for not respecting her daughter's desire to be called Leo.
After communicating with CFS, the parents agreed that their daughter would benefit from specialized residential care for treatment. Krista claimed that CFS began discussing sending Jennifer to a place in Wyoming instead of one of the available facilities in Montana.
"And at that point, because we were already in such a state from the hospital disrespecting us and our wishes, we immediately looked up Wyoming's laws on transitioning minors," Krista said. "It looked to us like kids could go ahead and have procedures done and have hormones without parental consent."
After the parents refused to approve their daughter's transfer to a Wyoming-based facility, CFS allegedly came to the family's home with police to take Jennifer away. The reason CFS reportedly gave for removing Jennifer from the Kolstads' home is because they were "unable or refusing to provide medical care."
While the couple was not allowed to see their daughter during her relocation, Reduxx reported that the teenager allegedly told her friends that she was leaving because she was "crazy and trying to kill herself."
"I feel this was a lapse in judgement by [CFS], a violation of HIPAA, and a miscarriage to Jennifer, as she is only 14," Krista said. "What if, when she is 17, this incident is behind her and she is in a good place mentally? This is a very small town and they have just let her brand herself as the 'crazy kid' who tried to kill themselves."
In September 2023, Jennifer returned to Montana, and she was placed in a CFS youth facility under "temporary legal custody." Then, this month, the court ordered that the CFS custody remain permanent. The girl is now living with her biological mother in Canada, who, according to statements Reduxx obtained from a counselor, Jennifer and her sister have described as abusive.
According to the Kolstads, they have "little to no contact with Jennifer." While a judge ordered the parents not to discuss the case, according to Reduxx, the parents said they will keep defying that order.
"We will continue to tell our story, even though we are currently in contempt of court, and try to keep other families from going through this," Krista said. "Our greatest fear is that our daughter is now going to become a victim of this system and eventually take her own life."
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
